Recording industry sues Ford and GM over in-car CD ripping

Ford and GM both sell cars that'll rip a CD to its internal HDD, so you never have to go without your jam in a pinch. Unfortunately, that same feature is now the target of outrage from the Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies, which has launched a class-action lawsuit against both the automakers, as well as AV unit outfits Denso and Clarion. The lobby group believes that the quartet need to pay royalties under the rules of the old Audio Home Recording Act, so that companies that made devices that "recorded" music had to pay musicians a fee as compensation for any future piracy. Considering the verdict in RIAA v. Diamond Multimedia that specifically exempted HDDs from the ruling and the fact that the head units can't directly record songs from the radio, we think the AARC might be onto a loser.